R: Job Scarcity
One thing that is so prominent here in Jakarta is job scarcity. The rich here is super rich, dominated by Chinese community and the poor people are freakin’ poor. Like dirt-taking-scraps poor.
In every taxi that I got in, every receptionist, cleaners that I talk to, the only thing that people sigh about is their cost of living and job market. Sure, I’m not discussing this with my colleague in big corporates here but even for corporate people, they don’t make as much as their counter parts in another country for the same job scope.
If you run down the streets, you can literally see people doing almost anything. At a road junction, people attempt to take tip by stopping traffic on the other end of the road for incoming cars. People singing from hawker stall to hawker stall to get tip from that. People standing in the rain, trying to control parking. Literally, whatever they can get money from. Every time I see them, I feel sad.
One thing that I truly remember was a grab driver said “Janjinya kalau hijrah ke Jakarta dapet rezeki yang lebih tapi malah sama aja. Capek”
How blessed am I? How blessed are us?